Paper Cupcakes

Today's cards

2009-08-15T16:17:00.003-03:00

This afternoon I managed to get some inspiration while looking through the Storybook cart handbook and made two new cards using my new Stickles and skittles.

A new era of scrapbooking (and cardmaking)!

2009-08-15T16:11:00.005-03:00

In May I received a Cricut for my birthday. I thought, "great! I'll finally be able to finish my X scrapbook!" (see next post). Once I got my Cricut, I signed up for the Cricut message board and began talking to a lot of cool ladies who showed me the ropes. Robyn the Pink Stamper has been a HUGE inspiration to me. Her site (now known as My Pink Stamper), has hundreds of videos on card making and scrapbooking and teach you how to use the Cricut as well! Her cards are the reason why I began cardmaking and enjoy it very much (perhaps even more than scrapbooking)! Her blog is linked on the right hand side.

Since joining the MB and watching Robyn's videos, my supplies have increased quite a bit. I now have a Cricut Expression with five cartridges: Plantin' Schoolbook, Life's a Beach, Walk in my Garden, and more recently, Storybook and Wild Card. I have a Cuttlebug with 8 embossing folders, blue, green, and aqua skittles, Marta Stewart glitter, varying shades of Bazzill cardstock, tons of embellishments (including rub-ons and stickers), clear stamps, ink pads, ribbon, and rulers and adhesive. I'm sure this list will continue to grow! Everything you see on my blog is made with these supplies.

Learning the ropes of cardmaking

2009-08-15T16:04:00.008-03:00

I've been playing around with my Cricut and have tried to make a few different cards. Here are some of the ones I made when I first got my Cricut, pre-the Pink Stamper.

Ahhh summer...Glad season!

2009-08-15T10:43:00.010-03:00

One of my favorite parts of summer is when the Gladiolas bloom. I love buying them fresh - I have two vases of them in my living room now.

Scrapbooking all of my years at X!

2009-08-15T09:49:00.025-03:00

Well, I have finally finished my scrapbook from all of my years at Saint Francis Xavier University. I had already completed a few pages when I first began the scrapbook a few years ago, but scrapbook technology has changed so much I thought it was best to toss the pages and start over to make the scrapbook look more cohesive. I've tried to take the best photos I can, but forgive me if some of them came out a tad blurry. The lighting wasn't the best. Later when I get a moment I will post the cards I have been working on this summer as well.

Bike races

2009-08-15T09:43:00.004-03:00

Josh, his friend Eric, and I went to the Shubenacadie bike races a few weekends ago. While they were drooling over the bikes, I was snapping pictures of the beautiful flowers I had found.

Strawberry season

2009-08-15T09:30:00.006-03:00

This summer, Josh and I agreed that when strawberry season hit, we would live off of them. After eating many, many shortcakes, chocolate shortcakes, and fresh strawberries, I decided to try two new recipes: Martha Stewart's frozen strawberry soufflé and strawberry cupcakes with strawberry buttercream. The cupcakes were a bit drier than I had hoped they would be, and the frosting had a strong butter base so the taste was not as whole as a regular buttercream that uses shortening as well. Chocolate strawberry shortcake, complete with chocolate syrup and cocoa whipped cream

Frozen strawberry soufflé

Strawberry cupcakes with fresh strawberry buttercream

Renovations

2009-08-11T00:06:00.002-03:00

I am in the process of majorly updating and re-hauling my blog. I am hoping to share some of the paper crafts that have taken over since summer began (and it has become too hot for the oven)!

Holiday baking

2009-02-08T13:45:00.021-04:00

I've been away from this for a bit but haven't stopped the baking! Over the holidays I tried my first cake with homemade marshmallow fondant. The fondant is difficult to color, and so most colors come out lighter than expected. This one was the first try. The colors are a bit "ninja turtle", but I was proud of the result! This was a chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream crumb coat and a marshmallow fondant.

The next cake I tried was a vanilla cake with vanilla buttercream crumb coat. The colors turned out much better this time.
I bought strawberry cutters and used edible pearl dust to decorate the cake.

For a dinner party, I made these vanilla sunflower cupcakes from my new cookbook, Hello Cupcake! They were very easy to make.

After the holidays were over, I decided to try a recipe from scratch out of my new cake decorating cookbook. These cupcakes are chocolate fudge cupcakes from scratch with a brown sugar cream cheese frosting.

Next, I was enticed by the craftster forum to make these Hostess inspired cupcakes. They are a devil's food cupcake from scratch stuffed with a light vanilla filling, and topped with store-bought frosting.

While I realize this isn't cupcakes or cake, but I had a terrible craving for monkey bread. I improvised a bit and added a maple glaze. It was delectable!

Cupcakes, round two

2008-11-23T18:03:00.051-04:00

Since I have accumulated more bag tips and sparkle glaze and have practiced with them, I decided to try another round of decorating cupcakes. I made another devil's food cake mix and chocolate and buttercream icing for the crumb coat. The decorations were also made of buttercream, but this time I used Wilton's color paste.

The colors turned out much more vibrant this time, which I really enjoyed.

I perfected the Wilton rosette technique

and made some rosette flowers.

I also worked on my 1M swirl

And added some sprinkles to it.

The sparkle glaze is really quite pretty, although it doesn't taste absolutely great.

I also practiced the sotas technique...although something like that doesn't require much practice!

I practiced the rose a little bit, and made some green leaves to adorn the cupcake as well.

The first cake

2008-11-23T17:42:00.019-04:00

After all of the practicing, I thought I'd try my hand at an actual cake. I made a devil's food cake and iced it with Wilton's chocolate fudge icing.

I made a lace border around the bottom and top edges with pink and peach colored buttercream icing.

Then I added star embellishments in yellow and blue, and drop flowers in yellow.

I made Wilton roses out of the different colors of icing I had, chilled them, and applied them to the top of the cake.

The finished product!

First try at decorating

2008-11-23T15:42:00.045-04:00

After being inspired by a friend who brought cupcakes to class one day, I bought a Wilton 15 piece decorating kit from the store down the street and did some experimenting. I made a buttercream icing and used generic food coloring to decorate the cupcakes.

I tried a few different techniques with the different tips in the kit.

This one was my favorite.

A few days later I returned to the store and purchased a tub of gum paste mix and a flower tool set. I practiced with the gum paste mix and attempted this calla lily. It turned out alright, but the gum paste dried faster than I had anticipated, therefore cracking the edges of the lily.

Shortly after that, I got the courage to try the Wilton rose. It didn't turn out quite right, but it was fine for a first try. I gave up for the day and came back to it later.

The next time I tried, I had a bit more success. I also tried my hand at a leaf to accompany the rose.